The Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission disciplined two former Kansas Democratic Party officers Wednesday over errors in the group’s campaign finance reports that occurred over a seven-year period.
State ethics officials termed the scope of the mistakes, which total over $1.5 million in expenditures and contributions that were misreported, to be “unprecedented.” Between 2009 and 2016, the party had underreported over $500,000 in contributions, as well as $507,000 in unreported expenditures, plus additional assets that were overreported.
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Campaign finance errors spanned seven years and three treasurers
Mark Skoglund, director of the Ethics Commission, said that reporting errors are typically minor in scope. The KDP issues, however, spanned from 2009 to 2016 and covered three separate party treasurers.
“The only reason they are being treated differently than most (cases of) misreporting is because of how extreme the number is,” Skoglund said.
The Democratic Party self-reported the mistakes in October after an internal party audit and lawyers representing the two treasurers, Matthew Watkins and Tobias Schlingensiepen, said KDP had implemented best practices to ensure the campaign finance reporting errors are not made again moving forward.
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Previously, a compliance consultant for the party would compile the reports in consultation with staff. They would then be passed along to the executive director and, later, the treasurer for review and signature, with the treasurer generally not involved in the report’s compilation.
It is unclear how exactly the errors occurred in the accounting process.
Watkins and Schlingensiepen each have long left their positions as treasurer for KDP, with Schlingensiepen elected to a Kansas House seat representing Topeka last week.
Matthew Watkins and Tobias Schlingensiepen will be fined
Both will be fined 5% of the maximum possible fine, which was $240,000 for Watkins and $40,000 for Schlingensiepen, but it will be waived if both men write letters outlining their situation to other campaign or party treasurers and complete 24 hours of community service. They will also be issued letters of caution.
KDP has also amended the reports in question and also paid out nearly $90,000 to Kansas non-profits to cover donations that were from unknown sources.
Schlingensiepen said the entire Ethics Commission probe had been “embarrassing.”
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He and Watkins said that they had not been directly involved in the preparation of the report and instead had signed what was presented to them, though they said this was not intended to excuse the issues. Both men also said they did not profit personally from the errors.
“I know what I signed and I know my responsibility and I understand that here,” Schlingensiepen said.
A spokesperson for the KDP did not immediately return an email seeking comment.
